Peter Gabriel’s amazing bass drum

Peter played drums when child and always loved the instrument, so at least he knew how to do it. 

In live acts is very common, lets remember the drummer has only to hands and two feet, so a second drummer can be required to create a determined sound, in this case maybe the song needs extra bass drum and Phil wasn't able to do it.

This happens also in studio albums, even when in most of the cases the band simply overdub the drummer two, three or more times playing all the sounds required, but other times if they have a second person capable of doing it results cheaper (The studio hour is really expensive, specially for starting bands and small labels).

But it's not uncommon, for example Jon Anderson is credited for percussion in The Yes Album along with Bill Bruford and I saw him playing a small drum set in the Relayer Tour.

At the end, If  Phil was allowed to sing More Fool Me, why can't Peter play drums?

Iván

Have a good bunch of Genesis photos some friends sent to me, if you want here are a couple more:

The photo you liked is my new signature.

Iván

In my opinion, Gabriel`s bass drum was more an improvised contribution by him and not an instrument needed for some arrangements or to replace "Collins`weak bass drum contributions". For me, Gabriel`s bass drum was another of his excentric whims for his on stage  image (or posing; I`m sorry, but IMO, some musicians like to have all the attention; Gabriel, for me, is one of those musicians who wants all the attention for him; for me, it was the main reason why he wanted/wants to have "an strange image").

IMO, Collins is a very good musician. All the ctitcism against his drums playing and/or his singing style is not fair.

You're right Sweetnighter, seems like a picture from any The Musical Box concert, not Genesis, but the closer we can get to them on this days.

Iván

Guillermo wrote:

In my opinion, Gabriel`s bass drum was more an improvised contribution by him and not an instrument needed for some arrangements or to replace "Collins`weak bass drum contributions". For me, Gabriel`s bass drum was another one of his excentric whims for his on stage  image (or posing; I`m sorry, but IMO, some musicians like to have all the attention; Gabriel, for me, is one of those musicians who wants all the attention for him; for me, it was the main reason why he wanted/wants to have "an strange image").

It's not a cricism against Phil, you just need to listen Genesis albums.

Let me explain, for example Power trio drummers for example need to be extra loud and have a great bass drum, because the loudnes iws required to cover some blank spaces caused by the few members they have, Palmer IMO is excellent with bass drums but is weak with the metals.

Phil Collins played in a five  man band so he heeded to be fast instead of loud, his work with thesnares and metals is icredible, but his bass drum is weak, this problem is caused also by his formation which is jazz and motown.

This is absolutely normal in a jazz drummer who plays with the snares and metals but doesn't use too much the bass drum. And even if he could do it well, it's posible in studio where he can overdub the bass drum, but he can't do it on stage, so it was necessary to add an extra bass drum.

On studio Peter did almost all the voices, but on stage Phil had to do extra work with his backing vocals, even Freddie Mercury had to use a tape in some songs on stage because he wasn't able to do more than one voice and in the studio he overdubbed even 10 times. But songs as The Musical Box, White Mountain (played with two drums on studio) or Supper's Ready need extra bass drums in some parts.

That's not an insult or a criticism, that's human nature and the limitations of the human body, we were born with two arma and two legs, so sometimes we need more hands or legs to play all the required sounds.

Guillermo wrote:

Gabriel, for me, is one of those musicians who wants all the attention for him; for me, it was the main reason why he wanted/wants to have "an strange image").

Of course he needs the attention, he was the frontman of a band where the rest of the members look like zombies, Banks never took his eyes from his keyboard, Steve Hackett played sitted on a chair and hardly moved a muscle of his face, Mike Rutherford played in the back where nobody could almost see him (Look at the pictures) and Phil was sitting in his drums.

Take Yes, Jon Anderson is calmed, but the show was efficiently backuped by Squire who jumped al along the stage or Rick Wakeman with his capes and solos plus Steve Howe who also helped with the show. ELP had Lake as frontman but Emerson made his own show also, Pink Floyd had Waters and Gilmour as frontmen, but Genesis had nobody except Peter.

As in the case of Phil with drums, the requirements of the band made him the frontman Genesis needed, but it wasn't always like that, in the pre-Collins/Hackett era, Peter was too shy and Tony Phillips had to tell stories and move the audience until his sytage fear became to strong for him and had to leave the band.

Even later, if you check Genesis in Belgium video, Peter stays almost in the same 1 square meter place all along the show and sings part of the tracks with his arms crossed in the front.

A man is the result of his circumstances, Genesis needed something to gain attention for the band so he started with the show, but it was in the Foxtrot tour, not before.

Iván